Crist open to oil-drilling effort

The governor told reporters Wednesday he was being ?open-minded? to a proposal unveiled a day earlier by Rep. Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, that would allow offshore drillers a chance to set up rigs within sight of Florida's Gulf of Mexico beaches. The bill would lift the state's decades-old ban on rigs and giving the governor and Cabinet authority over proposals for drilling between 3 to 10 miles from shore.

Crist agreed with Cannon?s assessment a day earlier that the pump-pressure $4-per-gallon gas applied a year earlier meant politicians needed to act.

?The more diversified we can be in terms of the energy resources that we have, the stronger it makes Florida and America,? Crist told reporters Wednesday.

?The experience of last summer tells you when gas goes to $4 a barrel (he probably meant a gallon) ? is that people want options. They want solar, wind, nuclear, any option that can be exercised responsibly and safely.

?The more options a consumer has, the better off we?re going to be.?

That probably isn't the response environmentalists were hoping to hear. But the bill is likely to be the potential trade with the Senate for Crist?s utility emission standards bill, which have moved through a committee stop in the Senate but have seen zero movement in the House. The governor said he was ?open-minded to reviewing? the drilling addition.